Yes, there are roman ruins in Budapest. As a Habsbourg ruler exclaimed: This is the Hungarian Pompei! Well, not really... But if you like roman ruins, you must visit Aquincum in Hungary. Between the 1. and 4 centuries AC. this part of Hungary was an important province of the Roman Empire, and its...

I very often tell my guests to walk as much as they can, walking around is probably the best way to discover a new place; you have enough time to admire even the smallest details and to absorb the atmosphere of the city. ...

"We hear about them in the media every day, but we know very little about their religion. What does one and a half milliard people believe in, all over the world? Differences and similarities with Jewish and Christian religions. How and where do Budapest muslims live and practise their religion?”...

We had an excellent Budapest Walking Tour, in the organisation of OIC (Union of Hungarian Tourist Guides), operated by Gabor Glasner, founder and leader of the Union. This walking tour was a real gem, a perfect ”Budapest Off the Beaten Track” tour. The Inner Parish Church was introduced by the...

Christmas season is near and Budapest is already waiting visitors with Christmas markets at major downtown squares. Come and see the hundreds of wooden pavilions full of local handicraft products, gifts and try Hungarian food and drink specialities such as sausages, flat bread, chimneycake and hot...

Feel and touch history in Budapest! Did you know that the 700-year-old Buda Castle, the royal seat of Hungary, underwent Ottoman Turkish occupation in the 16th century and only the allied armies of Emperor Leopold I, Pope Innocent XI, King Jan Sobieski of Poland and the Republic of Venice could...

The largest Roman Catholic Church of Hungary turns 160 years old in August 2016. Consecrated in honour of the Holy Virgin and St Adalbert, the Seat of the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church of Hungary was completed in 1856. The dimensions of the 61000 square feet church are really impressive: it...

The state of Hungary was founded in the year 1000 by the country’s first king, Stephen. He encouraged the spread of Christianity, established Benedictine monasteries and the official royal administration, passed the first written laws and married Gisela, the sister of the most influential European...

Time flies fast! The Berlin Wall, a barrier that divided Berlin, was constructed exactly 55 years ago. It completely cut off West Berlin from East Berlin and the GDR, ensuring the USSR’s and the local Communist Party’s long-term dominance in the region. The tall concrete wall was heavily guarded...

Latest news from Hungary, folks. Bocuse d'Or, the international chef championship, is one of the world's most prestigious cooking competitions. This year Budapest, the capital of Hungary is the venue of the event which is usually referred to as the “culinary Olympic Games”. The competition has...

Budapest, the capital of Hungary, is renowned for a large number of hot springs right in the middle of the city. Water temperatures vary from 28 to 42°C (80 to 105°F). The thermal waters of Budapest were first utilized and enjoyed by the ancient Romans nearly 1800 years ago – the impressive...

Franz Liszt, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernő Dohnányi…. a few famous Hungarian musicians who, in addition to their great international career, made Hungarian music culture acknowledged world-wide. Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, is the capital of European classical music, too. Ever...

If you are in Hungary, you have to taste the country's national drinks. But beware: unlike the neighboring European countries, Hungary is not a beer-country! Hungary is a wine and pálinka country. :) ...

International Workers' Day (also known as May Day) is a celebration of the international labour movement and left-wing movements. It commonly sees organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their labour unions throughout most of the world. May 1 is a national holiday in more...

The film shot in 28 days entirely in Hungary follows a day in the life of Saul, a Hungarian-Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz, member ot the Sonderkommando burning the dead, a group of mostly Jewish prisoners the Nazis forced to assist with herding people to the gas chambers, burning the bodies and...

I admit I’ve never liked playing with a pinball machine. I regarded then a big, fancy money mounching monsters. As we recently had a proposal during a study tour to visit a Pinball Museum in Budapest, I wanted to cancel it. I am happy now I did not. ...

It is not easy to be a tourist at Christmas in Budapest, if you have no relatives or friends. On 24th of December most of the public transportation will stop at late afternoon. On the 25th, Friday, you can go to a spa, to the Zoo or You can visit the Jewish quarter. The synagogues, the Jewish Museum...

Old name: Stalin’s town. That time it had the biggest communist steel works of the country, to make Hungary the country of steel and iron! The inhabitants lived (and still live) in 10 floor communist boxes, the style is called “Stalin Baroque”. (see pictures) The Danube bank is a loess-wall...

As price of energy is an issue today, many people use wood-heated tile stoves in Hungary. And not only in the countryside! More and more people are having these tile stoves installed into their apartment or house these days. The funny thing is that these tile stoves were originally the only heating...

Yellow rubber ducks swim on the river Danube in Budapest! Last year’s report: A paddling of yellow rubber ducks floated down the Danube in front of the Parliament during a rubber duck race for charity in Budapest. Thousands of rubber ducks were thrown into the Danube from Margit Bridge during a...

Last year Hervé Loránth Ervin won first prize of the MY Modern Metropolis magasine for his Street Art. This year he comes up with a new statue at the same place (see pictures). While the first huge figure last year was only there for a week, this time the gigantic Head & Hand stays from June to...

Most of the inhabitants have never heard about it. This cemetery was forgotten, perhaps this is why it could survive the years of the socialism. I also searched the opportunity to enter it for many years. ...

The March of the Living started from the Dohány Street Great Synagogue, went along Andrássy Avenue and ended at the Heroes’ Square, where speaches were held. I was there with my parents, both Holocaust survivors (my mother was 10, my father 18, surviving in Budapest Jewish Ghetto in 1944-45)....

Zsolnay Porcelain Manufacturing was established in 1853 and over the years has produced exquisite works of art. It's still operating today, although certainly not on the scale of the past. Zsolnay is headquartered in Pécs, where it also has a museum located in the Zsolnay family's former home. ...

The Hungarian Radio's Childrens Choir has just celebrated its 60th anniversary (of course with not the same children…) Magnificent sound, great pieces. Many of the pieces were first performance, written exclusively for the Childrens Choir of the Hungarian Radio. The concert was held in the...

Chatedral of Pécs is a special building, an emblem of the 1000 year continuity of Hungarians and a symbol of the continuous fight for Christianity and persistence. It was given the title “Basilica Minor” by Pope John Paul II. during his visit to Pécs. ...

The Christian Museum in Esztergom is the largest ecclesiastical collection in Hungary, conserving European and Hungarian works of art of several centuries. On account of its Hungarian, Italian, Netherlandish, German and Austrian paintings, it is the third most significant picture gallery in Hungary,...

The part of modern Hungary west of the Danube, which was first settled in the Neolithic period, came into the Roman Empire in the 1st century CE. It formed part of the Roman province of Pannonia. The town of Sopianae was founded on the southern slope of the Mecsek massif in the 2nd century by...

Starting in 1868 a horse tramway ran on schedule from the Chain Bridge to Zugliget,(Buda Hills) set in operation by the Public Railway Society of Buda. Niklaus Riggenbach, a Swiss man, was the inventor of the Riggenbach rack system, which allowed locomotives to negotiate steeper stretches of track...